Zero Strings

ZS 7

Casey

As much as I wanted to keep sleeping, some idiot decided to wake me up from my beauty sleep by banging so loudly on my door that it was literally impossible for me to go back to sleep.

I check the time and once I saw that it was only 9 am, my mood got worse as I groaned and got up to open my door.

"What?!" I snapped at Caleb

"You're late. Mom and dad's been waiting for us since 7 am" Caleb said before turning his heel. Ah shit, I forgot my parents are here!

"Right, give me a minute" I tell Caleb before slamming the door close and quickly getting ready. I didn't have to put on so much effort today and just put on lazy day fits since I was gonna do the getting ready routine later before the party anyways. Right now, we were just gonna go to our parents' hotel so we could hang out for a bit.

After taking us to breakfast and walking around the city, we went back to the hotel around noon so my parents could give Caleb what he's really been excited about this whole time. His car that we all got for him. 

And bro was close to tearing up as soon as he saw the car he almost fell to his knees as he softly felt his car to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"I love it. I love it. I... love it" Caleb said, making us laugh because for some reason, those three words were the only words in his vocabulary right now.

After thanking our parents and other stuff, me and Caleb headed back to our apartment with the car of course, and I was sitting shot gun. 

I got so excited about the whole thing that as soon as Caleb drove out of the hotel parking lot, only then did I remember that I was supposed to be texting someone.

Hey, good morning. Sorry I didn't text you when I woke up, we were out with my parents. I texted River. 

"So what did they get you?" Caleb asked while I stared at my phone, waiting for River to text back. Usually he'd be up already and he usually texts back fast, but whatever. Maybe he's just doing something at the moment.

"I don't know. They told me I had to wait until next semester" I answered nonchalantly.

"What, why?" Caleb asked, and I just shrugged. To be fair, I didn't really mind waiting for my birthday gift. I was already lucky that my parents were well-off and had given us everything we wanted and needed, so there was no point tripping over my delayed birthday gift.

"I don't know" I answered "Hey, can you drop me off at River's place? I just gotta wake him up" I added, making Caleb scrunch his face a bit.

"Damn, you are so clingy" Caleb said, making me glare at him before lightly hitting him on his arm "Ow!"

"Just... do it!" I told him. 

"Ugh., fine" Caleb said before letting me direct him to River's apartment complex. 

After dropping me off outside, I quickly headed up to his floor. As more second passed, the more I started to worry. He still haven't replied to me and I was already walking to his apartment. It's been half an hour already.

As soon as I was standing outside his apartment, I decided I'd call him first before actually knocking just to make sure, but after a couple of rings, his phone just went to voicemail so I sucked it up and knocked.

"River? You home?" I said as I knocked a couple of times, but no one answered. I pressed my ear to the door to listen to any movement inside his apartment, but nothing, so I knocked again. And when he still wasn't answering, I started worrying more.